Full review at The Intergalactic Academy

On the surface, Elizabeth Norris’s upcoming debut Unraveling sounds promising: a paranormal procedural featuring the daughter of an FBI agent who investigates a series of mysterious murders where bodies are discovered twisted by radiation. The novel’s opening–which also features our heroine Janelle Tenner’s very own near-death experience–is heavy on The X-files references and promise a similar degree of spooky complexity.

Unfortunately, Unraveling‘s very premise was identical to another paranormal procedural–not The X-files, but rather the still-airing Fringe.

I’m not usually one to bemoan the presence of derivative works in YA. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t even mention it. Sure, there have been plenty of paranormal novels where teens meet and flirt in biology classrooms. And okay, there have been a couple of dystopian stories featuring coal-mining populations that may or may not live under domes. I’m not, however, talking about surface similarities but rather the fundamental skeletons of both stories. Unraveling and Fringe offer essentially identical frameworks.

(view spoiler)[On Fringe, Olivia Dunham is a stubborn, driven FBI agent who investigates paranormal incidences. Initially, the basic structure of the show resembles The X-files. However, Olivia eventually comes to fall in love with Peter Bishop, a rough-around-the-edges bad boy who is actually from a parallel world. His crossing between worlds as a child–during which he nearly drowned when he came to under a lake–is causing extensive damage to both universes and threatens to cause dimensional collapse.

In Unraveling, Janelle Tenner is the stubborn, drive daughter of an FBI agent who investigates paranormal incidences. The novel draws deliberate comparisons between these cases and those on The X-files. However, Janelle eventually comes to fall in love with Ben Michaels, a rough-around-the-edges bad boy who is actually from a parallel world. His crossing between worlds as a child–during which he nearly drowned when he came to in the middle of the ocean–is causing extensive damage to both universes and threatens to cause dimensional collapse. (hide spoiler)]

These elements (and there are significant similarities to other franchises as well, including Veronica Mars and Roswell) wouldn’t, in and of themselves, particularly damn Unraveling. But Fringe is one of my favorite science fiction shows–and the specific twist mentioned above one of the most innovative I’ve ever seen on TV. Fringe has used this science fictional premise to examine its characters under a variety of frameworks. And these characters are incredibly well-drawn and dynamic, capable of carrying the story even when the SFnal premise falters. In order to succeed, Unraveling would have to rise at least to a similar level.

Unfortunately, it does not. Unraveling‘s prose is often awkward; the dialogue, on occasion, painfully corny (“Whatever you feel for him, don’t let it get in the way of what the laws of physics tell you”). And the cast is sketchily-drawn, rather than vivid. Love interest Ben Michaels, for instance, has green eyes and floppy hair and likes motorcycles. I don’t know how he moves or thinks, even after spending nearly five hundred pages with him. We’re told that Janelle resents having to raise her younger brother, suggesting that they should have an intimate relationship. But I didn’t know anything about him, either. Janelle’s mother, who is bipolar and whose personality, you would think, would have an incredible impact on Janelle, is largely absent, and when she is present she’s never developed beyond “mentally ill.” Even Janelle’s best friend is a cipher. The only thing I could tell you about him at all is that he’s half-Asian–and I only know that because at one point he drops an awkward, self-deprecating racial reference.

The only character beside Janelle that I had any concrete sense of was her father, who loves science fiction. This gave Norris the chance to name-drop some sci-fi, but I found these sci-fi references fairly shallow. At times they were even inappropriate–like when Janelle tells us her father read her Ender’s Game when she was three. But more significantly, we’re supposed to believe that he was a negligent, workaholic parent. And yet Janelle’s memories of her home life are infused with references to him. It just didn’t add up.

That’s not to say this is all bad. Despite the sometimes-awkward phrasing, the novel moves quickly, helped along by its ticking clock format and short chapters. Janelle herself is a fairly solid character. And Elizabeth Norris’ breathless stylistics actually worked well in a pinch during make-out scenes. Readers who don’t mind fairly derivative plots and are simply looking for action novels with lots of romance might enjoy it, even if genuine sci-fi geeks like me are probably best just sticking with Fringe.